St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-01-20
A False Alarm of Fire Set the Audience
Frantic With Unreasoning APP
prehension,
And in the Rush For the Door Nearly
Twenty Persons Were
Killed.
Goschen's Campaign Under Full
Headway--The German
Army Bill.

| for a long time past. Last evening bene-
| fit performance was given and the place
was crowded. During the progress OF the
play man and woman qaurreled III the
street outside and near the main doorway
| of the hall. The man used violence and
the woman screamed. Her cry was heard
| by passer by. who misunderstood it and
shouted fire" The woman's screams and
the cry of fire" were heard inside and at
once created panic the audience. num-
bering 500, rising in a body and rushing
pell nell for the main entrance. Inc
audience was almost entirely composed OF
Jews. The manager of the Hebrew ORA
matte club, which was giving the entertain
ment, was on the stage when the panic
began. He perceived at once that there
was no reason for it and did all in his
power to
ALLAY THE EXCITEMENT
and to afford all possible facilities for the
exit of the people. The hall has number
of entrances, and he had them all thrown
wide open and called on the people when
they would not remain to divide and use all
the doorways, but they paid no attention
to him. In fact many of them construed
the managers earnestness into proof that
there was fire, and these increased their
eXertions to get out. The whole crowd.
as with one impulse. made for the main
entrance. 1t happened that among those
who first reached it were number OF
women and children, who had been occu-
pying some of the rear seats. They were
Overborne by stronger men attempting to
pass them, and as the women and children
fell at the doorway as stumbling blocks
they tripped UP others, who were crushed
down by the frantic crowd. 1t took but
few minutes to empty the house, and the
alarm was so thorough that not soul
among the audience refrained from the
struggle to get out. When the people, after
reaching the street, aScertained the facts OF
the situation, a scene of great disorder OF
anther kind ensued, caused by the discov-
cry that number were missing, Then
rush back was made. This, however. was
stopped at the main entrance by the police,
who had arrived and assumed control.
SEVENTEEN CoRPSES
were found in the theater near the door.
They were all torn. crushed and disfigured.
1t was found that of the dead. twelve were
women three were boys one was girl and
the other man. The remains were al
most unacceptable. Eye witnesses say
that the way the strong men who got up
permoSt in the struggle at the door, crushed
and trampled upon those who fell down
was indescrbable, and ruthleSsly brutal,
but. of course, not willful, it being a SUI
preme case of ''every one for himself. 1t
is stated that number of infants carried in
their mothers arms and chung to through
all the panic were also crushed or Smoth-
cred to death, and that number of others
were fatally injured. The scene during the
attempted return of the crowd was painful
in the extreme. The bereaved waited at
the doorways all night waiting to have
their dead restored to them, and the lamen-
tations of the women were Misunderstanding.
The police have been given number OF
contradictory stories about the cause OF the
panic. One statement is that thieves
started the cry of fire for the purpose OF
getting an opportunity to despoil the many
rich JeweSses i'll the hall OF the costly
Jewels they bore on their persons.
The hall to-day resembles disordered
auction room. Broken furniture, crushed
toys, chldren's hats, broken bottles, orange
peel, actors wigs and shredS of clothes lie
scattered over the floor.
MANY BLOOD SPOTS
are on the backs of chairs and on the floor.
Everywhere and there are CHASTITY knots of
hair clinging to the furniture. Several
escapes were made through the windows.
most Of which are badly smashed. The
bodies were found at the bottom of the
stone stairs leading to the gallery. Here
a terrible struggle took place between the
front of the crowd rushing from the main
floor and the leaders of the throng
which rushed down the gallery
stairs. The dead lay mostly in
opposing rows, the feet of each row close
to those of the other, one row of heads
lying toward the gallery stairway. the
other toward the opposite side of the hall.
The faces of the dead are distorted, with
agonized expressions. The clothes are
completely torn from the bodies of some.
A little girl, since identified as Eva Marks,
was found lying at the bottom of the pile
dead. Her lower limbs were bare and the
upper part of her dress torn to ShredS,
showing that she had fought hard for life.
Isaac Levy, venerable Hebrew, with
white flowing beard and hair, was found
among the dead He and his wife were
regular attendants at the performances.
They always sat near the door, and it is
thought from the position in which his
body was found that Levy, instead of fee
ing alone when the panic started, remained
to help protect his wife, so the old man
was brushed down by the rushing crowd
and
STAMPED TO DEATH.
His wfe's body lay opposite. The
woman was in the prime of life and wore
brightly colored clothes and quantities of
jewelry. Beside her lay little boy whose
knickerbockers and stockings were torn to
shreds. A man named Harris Goldberg
says he went to the gallery of the nall ac-
companied by his wife and family. They
all set together. The play was melO-
drama called the Spanish Gypsy Girl"
During the performance some boys in
order to obtain better view of the stage
climbed up an exposed gas pipe liked along
the wall. This strained and started leak.
Goldberg placed handkerchief over the
leak Some one shouted turn off the
meter This shout was raised stimuli
taneously with cry of alarm
from one of the actors on the
stage. Then the people III the gallery
rose and rushed headlong down stairs.
Goldberg's wife was torn away from him
and trampled to death. His siX-year-old
son jumped upon the heads of the packed
mass and escaped by running over them.
The managers are not to blame for the dis
aster. The passage from the hall to the
street entrance is ten feet wide where the
struggle occurred, and the doors swing
both ways. There are several minor exits
from the gallery, three besides the stair
case The disaster arose not from the
crowding of the passage but the frantic
efforts of the people in the gallery to force
their way down the crowded stairs. The
men and women in front were driven head
long into the passage, where they met the
excited occupants of the pit and there was
hopeless block.
GOSCREN'S CAMPAIGN.
A Platform of irincipIes--Lord
HartingtOn's Endorsement.
LONDON, Jan. 19.-Lord Harrington bas